A Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven
by TheGreatestFear0909
Summary: Klaus Mikaelson is living in New Orleans while conspiring with witches to take down Marcel, a vampire he sired. An old friend, Adelaide Darns, walks in and decides to help him out. Will their friendship end in tragedy or lead to something more? [Set after Season 4 Finale. Caroline mentioned, but not apart of the story...yet.]
1. Chapter 1

**This story is set after what I suppose will happen in the Season 4 finale. Klaus has been in New Orleans for a bit and he meets an old friend. I don't want to give anything away for the direction of the story, but let's just say that Caroline will be mentioned. She may even show up. Please review :) **

Klaus sat at the bar sipping on another glass of bourbon. The witches had reached a stalemate with him, so he took the small break as a reason to celebrate. Tumbler after tumbler did not satisfy his thirst, so he had resorted to swigging on his third bottle. He took another gulp, about ready to walk back to his flat on Conti Street, but a shift in the seat to his right caught his attention. Slowly he turned his body to find two large green eyes smirking back him.

"Nel," Klaus breathed out.

"The recluse comes out of hiding." Nel grabbed his almost empty bourbon bottle and took a generous sip finishing the contents. "It's good to see you."

"I hardly reciprocate," Klaus said dryly.

Nel turned towards the bar and motioned for another drink. Her small face, or what of her profile Klaus could see didn't give away any reaction to his snide comment. Her light auburn hair had grown longer, but her tall frame still remained the same since he had last seen her. Once the bartender returned with two more bourbons her long, lithe limbs turned back to him. She raised her glass in cheers.

"Congratulations," She held her drink in the air waiting for Klaus to properly respond, "I hear Mikael is dead." He tightly clenched the full glass on the bar.

"How's Jakob," Klaus asked knowing the pain it should inflict.

"Dead," Nel said simply. Her eyes bore into his. He knew she was looking for a challenge.

"Condolences?"

"Congratulations actually."

"Really." His forehead crinkled as his eyebrows rose.

"Yes," she said, "So, let us drink to our mutual..." She hesitated for the right word, "Gains."

Klaus merely raised his glass in response. Nel clinked their drinks together and downed her bourbon in a gracious gulp.

"So what brings you back to New Orleans after all this time?"

Klaus licked the bourbon off his lips and stared back at Nel. Her tight, tailored white dress giving her the look of doe-eyed innocence. She didn't look a day over twenty-one, but Klaus knew the darkness that hid behind those beautiful honeydew eyes. The light color of those eyes was unnerving to others, but he had grown accustomed to them in the thousand years he had known her. "Always the curious one aren't you?"

Nel motioned for another drink. "Old friends. New stories. Time to catch up don't you think?"

Again, Klaus remained quiet. Nel was used to his mode of skirting around unpleasant topics, even though she knew most of his darker secrets. When one is cursed by The Five for half of a century, one has a difficult time discerning real from nightmare. Even though Elijah was there to help there was a time when even he couldn't bare the burden.

"Fine, Niklaus. Let me see if I can fill in the blanks." Nel flourished with her hands. "Stop me if I'm wrong. You come out of hiding and enter Mystic Falls to break the curse. Hijinxs ensue by a bunch of high schoolers. You break the curse and try to reconnect with your old bud Stef. Find out his a dull boy and return him back. Then, you make your hybrid army and kill your father. From there, you stay in town for more months than necessary." Nel again flourished her hands in a contemplative manner. "For what reason? That part is a little hazy to me."

"The doppelganger lived through the sacrifice. I needed to close up loose ends."

"Which you could have easily done in a few weeks."

Klaus' jaw clenched. His hand gripped his glass tight enough that his pale skin turned even whiter. He abruptly turned his face towards her, "What are you implying Nel?"

"Just that the Niklaus I once knew would have ripped through that town, killed the doppelganger and the annoying group of friends in an instant."

Klaus' control broke and he grabbed a bunch of the plastic cocktail swords from a cup on the bar. He quickly shoved the pointed ends into the exposed thigh of Nel as she casually sat on her bar stool. Nel grimaced when thirty or so of the swords broke her skin. Blood trickled down the side of her thigh and slowly dripped to the floor. Through the pain, Nel still broke into a satisfied smirk. "There you are. I thought Mystic Falls had made you docile."

He used his palm and bluntly shoved them deeper into her leg. "Perhaps." At this point, the hilts of the little plastic swords were flesh against her skin.

"Any deeper and I'm going to get blood on my dress." Klaus pulled them all at once and let them fall to the floor. "I apologize for what I said," Nel said as she used the cocktail napkins to clean the remnant blood off her leg. "And you should apologize for treating an old friend as such," She motioned to her now healed thigh.

Klaus gave a pointed look in return and ignored her comment completely, "What are you doing in New Orleans?"

"You seem surprised I'm here. I am apart of the founding of this city just as much as you are."

"A notion that Marcel doesn't seem to care about. Founding doesn't hold much weight over time."

"Marcel is a child. He can be easily eradicated to make room for the old ways."

"I would watch your tongue, Nel. I am his sire."

"Oh, I know," Nel replied dryly. "But I also know you. Siring doesn't hold much weight over power." His eyes furrowed. Nel merely smiled in response. "Don't you want that power back?"

"Remind me how you haven't been killed yet," Klaus remarked.

"You know I'm right."

"Or Marcel sent you to settle his unease and gauge my allegiances."

"So Marcel is uneasy with you? Interesting."

"Don't pretend to be ignorant. Common knowledge."

"It is, but I suppose that is what you get for attacking one of his vampire pals." Nel waited for Klaus to response, but again he remained silent. "You know I'm right."

"I haven't seen you in over two hundred years."

"You know I've always been loyal to you."

"Perhaps you've been persuaded otherwise."

"I still owe you."

"A thousand years is quite enough time to change your mind."

"Stop being paranoid, Klaus. What do you have to lose?" Klaus thought over her words. She had never betrayed him, but one could often change their mind on a whim. "If it helps, Sophie sent me here to reacquaint myself after all these years. Bury old hatchets, so to speak. Or in our case, a branding iron."

"Still haven't let that go?" Klaus smirked a little, but his eyes remained cold and calculating.

"Either have you. Otherwise, you wouldn't question my trustworthiness."

"You were trying to overthrow my family."

"Wrong," Nel said matter-of-factly. "I was trying to protect you and Elijah. Everyone else was trying to overthrow you two. And you being you, jumped to conclusions, and called me one of the mutineers. I only reacted to your anger."

"The fire consumed most of the city within five hours."

"Which you started by throwing the branding iron you used on face across the room."

"Vincente provoked me."

"I spent weeks in some shack with a witch trying to get rid of the wound. Whatever the hell you put on that iron, made me writhe in pain for quite awhile."

"I hope so."

"Even though I wasn't guilty. Real nice, Klaus." Nel downed another drink. "Old news, but like I was saying Sophie sent me here. She said you two had an agreement."

"So you know Sophie," Klaus remarked.

"We're old friends. I also knew the Deveraux grandmother."

"Well then, let's go meet your old friend."

Nel gathered her purse and stepped down from the barstool. She smoothed her tight white dress down her body. "Let's."

Klaus walked past her without once glimpsing at her tall form. He pushed open the bar doors into the afternoon light, which was blinding compared to the darkness inside. She quickly followed behind him all the while thinking, _there is something different about him. There is something or someone that is making him so. _Along with taking down Marcel and regaining her power, she promised herself to find out what was that something or someone.

_**Coming up:**_** Meeting with Sophie. Nel is introduced to the whole NOLA gang and figures out about Hayley (and the baby, meh). Also, more back story of Nel and Klaus throughout the thousand years they've known each other and her connection with the other original brothers. **


	2. Chapter 2

The beginning of the summer heat radiated off the humans that they kept pushing through. The streets were filled with sweating bodies crammed onto the sidewalks. Nel praised her vampire senses that numbed the sense of feeling the temperature.

"Don't you think I should be leading, seeing as we are going to see _my_ old friend Sophie," Nel said.

"I was just with her before you so rudely interrupted my drinking—"

"Your pity party."

"We agreed that they were celebratory drinks."

"We agreed on something?" Nel said incredulously. "Color me surprised." Before she knew it, they had entered a graveyard and were walking between rows and rows of gravestones. "I don't think Sophie's here."

"Trust me, she is." Finally they reached a rather large mausoleum and Klaus knocked on its door.

"Niklaus," Elijah said. He looked past his brother and his dark eyes rested on Nel. "What a lovely surprise," He gave her a gracious nod. "Nel."

"Sophie didn't tell you I would be coming?"

"She did." Elijah let the door swing open fully to let them walk inside. "I just wasn't sure if Niklaus would allow you."

Elijah always remained proper even after the many years of knowing him. Some memories raised too much hurtful remembrance. Nevertheless, Nel gave a small laugh and walked into the dingy room. If it was supposed to be a real mausoleum, it lacked coffins or anything that resembled a burial room. Only candles were mounted on the wall that gave off a warm, but low glow to the room. The afternoon light streamed in from the door behind them.

"So tell me why Nel is involved with all of this?" Klaus abruptly cut into the silence that had fallen on the room.

"We need her." Sophie emerged from a dark corner in the room.

"We agreed that _we_ would take care of Marcel." Klaus' anger was beginning to surface when his voice rose. "No one told me of this!"

Nel was accustomed to his rage, so she quickly cut in. "Klaus calm down." Her voice matched his menace.

"Don't you dare tell me—"

"I'll do as I please! I'm here to help. And from what I've gathered from the one day that I've been back, you need all you can get." Venom practically dripped from her voice. "So, don't you dare tell me what I will and will not be doing."

Klaus stepped forward towards Nel. She knew he was looking for a physical altercation to take place. They had hardly been around one another for twenty minutes and it was about to be just like 1788 all over again. "Niklaus." Elijah's calm voice cut into the tension that had grown in the room. "Stop."

Nel and Klaus both stared at one another hoping that the other pounced. They were both fuming, which was why most of their reunions always ended in a fight that warranted a century or two for cool off.

"Yeah," another figured emerged from the dark corner Sophie had just come from. "All the yelling is giving me a headache."

Nel sniffed the air and within seconds she recognized the putrid smell. "You're keeping company with werewolves now?" She looked pointedly at Klaus.

"She has her uses," Elijah said.

"I'm not going to some sticky bayou every other day to just be a use to someone," the werewolf girl said.

Aggravated from her verbal spat with Klaus, she didn't care for the she-wolf and her woes. "My heart bleeds for you." The werewolf caught Nel's sarcasm, but didn't react, which aggravated her even more. "Does this were-girl have no bite?"

Nel stepped towards her, but Klaus sidestepped in front of the girl. His protective motion didn't go unnoticed by Nel, but Klaus quickly tried to cover it up by asking Sophie, "Why is Nel helping us?"

"She is going to help Hayley." Sophie grabbed the shoulder of the werewolf and gave it a reaffirming squeeze. Hayley gave a small smile in return.

"Help her with what?" Nel asked.

"She is carrying Niklaus' child," Elijah said.

Moments passed as Nel waited for everyone to start laughing at Elijah's joke, but surprisingly everyone kept silent. She could hear the slight increase of Sophie's breathing. She listened harder and heard a faint heartbeat in the room. Quiet as a mouse. Or more likely a miniature monster growing in the were-girl's stomach. "What the hell is this?" Nel turned to Klaus waiting for him to answer.

"It's the truth," Klaus replied.

"And you believe it?"

"It took some convincing to say the least," Elijah interjected.

"Do you have them juiced up on some of your dark witchy voodoo?" Nel stepped away from Hayley towards Sophie. "Because there's absolutely no way this is true."

"She is carrying his child," Sophie said.

"How 'bout we let the werewolf speak for herself," Nel said.

"I don't have to prove anything to you," Hayley retorted.

The fire erupted inside Nel again and she stepped toward Sophie even closer. "I could just rip her heart out," Nel motioned to Hayley. "Because if this is true, there's no way wolf girl is doing it alone."

The room remained silent and Nel looked over to Klaus. They locked eyes for a few moments and she read his glance immediately.

"Or," Nel stated lightly. "I could just let you live. Plus, I want to see you try and take down Marcel."

Both Sophie and Hayley let out their breath in relief. Sophie was quicker to compose herself and stepped towards Nel and said, "Good, because we need your help with finding a witch to help Hayley."

"Help Hayley how?" Nel asked.

"Stop from turning," Hayley said. "We can't be sure that the baby will survive the transformation."

"Well, I think that is where Klaus comes in."

Hayley quickly interjected, "No. I'm not becoming one of his hybrids."

"Don't see any other options."

"You know a witch named Violet," Sophie replied.

"Perhaps."

"She caused a lot of trouble in the werewolf community by causing werewolves to change whenever she cast them to."

"Sounds like her," Nel said while a smug smile crept onto her face.

"It's a tragedy," Hayley said hotly. "She destroyed a pack and forced them to turn against their will."

"Like the moon?"

"It was still—"

"Will you get to the point," Klaus interrupted sharply.

Nel glared at Klaus hoping she transferred the sentiment: _This is not my problem, it's yours. _

"We were hoping she could reformulate the forced transformations into something that would stop Hayley from turning during the full moon."

Nel quickly surveyed the room, meeting the glances of four very different people. "Fine. I'll see what I can do." She ran her hands down her tight white dress to smooth out the wrinkles caused by the heat. "I have to say this was all very—"

"Unprecedented?" Elijah finished.

"Odd," Nel said. "I'd say odd. I'll keep in contact. Now if you'll excuse me."

"We'll walk you out," Klaus said. Elijah motioned for the mausoleum door and opened it for Nel. They all filed out one after the other.

Once they had reached the outskirts of the cemetery, out of earshot of the werewolf, Nel asked, "You trust her?" She couldn't even be sure which _she_ she meant.

"No," Klaus said.

"But you trust that the child is yours?"

"I do."

Without hesitation Nel burst into a laugh. Both Elijah and Klaus stopped walking, "What's so funny?"

"I was just thinking that it's a good thing you didn't break the curse 500 years ago," Nel said between giggles. Both brothers didn't seem reciprocate. "Come on, this whole situation is a bit ridiculous don't you think?"

Finally, both Klaus and Elijah smiled in return. Klaus asked, "So you'll help us?"

"Yes," Nel said. "You just have to tell me where Rebekah is."

"Rebekah?" Elijah asked. Klaus' jaw tightened at the mention of his sister's name.

"Yeah, Rebekah is the one who introduced me to Violet. And seeing that Violet and I had our differences, I think it would be best if Rebekah came."

"I think that's going to be difficult," Klaus said through tight lips.

"Why is that?"

"She wants nothing to do with New Orleans."

"Where's Rebekah?" Nel asked again.

"Mystic Falls," Elijah said. "Virginia."

"Perfect," Nel said.

"I'll join you," Klaus said quickly.

"Not so fast," Nel said. "I really don't want this sibling spat to overtake the reason for the trip. So I'll ask you nicely to stay"

"She has a point," Elijah said. He gently grabbed his brother's shoulder. "You can visit Mystic Falls another time."

Nel watched the interaction between the two of them and was intrigued by Klaus' reaction to Elijah. Klaus almost looked disappointed that he couldn't accompany Nel on her trip to Mystic Falls. She was sure it wasn't her company that he'd miss, or that fact that he missed his sister, seeing that he didn't flinch at the idea of putting her in a coffin for ninety years. The travel to Mystic Falls seemed more interesting by the minute, even more so than a werewolf carrying one of the Original's children.

**Thanks for the interest! I have a whole fic planned out, so this is probably going to be a long one. I plan to have Nel, Klaus, and Elijah in almost every chapter with other characters from The Originals popping up. Nel has an interesting past that is connected with every Original sibling, which I'll write about more!**

_**Coming Up:**_** Mystic Falls and the gang. Will intersect with most of the characters and possible run-in with Silas!Stefan…**

**Please review :) **


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